A short history
Snuggled down the Calvados coast from Honfleur and Le Havre, Deauville has for centuries been a holiday destination for the French, and for their Dutch and Belgian neighbours. The town's founder, Charles Duc de Morny, was so enamoured by horses, he built the town's first racecourse before its church. Today, his memory lives on in the G1 Prix Morny, and the town's main track also hosts such top class contests as the G1 Prix Jacques Le Marois and G1 Prix Rothschild.
Still a centre of French racing and breeding, and known as a 'capital of the horse', take breakfast at sunrise to the sight of horses exercising on the beach. Wander town the promenade for lunch (and cider, of course), and peruse the market of a town characterised by Normandy's trademark wooden-beamed villas.
What happened in 2023?
2023 saw a record breaking year for Arqana, France's thoroughbred auction house, who hosted the first yearling sales of the season. Over the road, at Deauville-La Touques Racecourse, Simon and Ed Crisford saw their first collective Group One success in the Prix Morny (with Vandeek). The same day, Baron Édouard de Rothschild's Mqse De Sevigne took the G1 Prix Jean Romanet for André Fabre and jockey Alexis Pouchin.
On Monday 21st August, at neighbouring Clairefontaine Racecourse (in easy walking distance of Deauville's town centre), Mandarin Basc was victorious in the Grand Steeplechase de la Ville de Deauville. It was a day that also saw flat racing and hurdling. And alongside racing that weekend, polo ponies were over from Argentina to compete in the Barrière Deauville Polo Cup!